Month: May 2006

Alice

… is 80 today. If you’re her age, you might remember her better as Schultzy. That’s Ann B. Davis of The Brady Bunch and The Bob Cummings Show.

The monkey trial

On May 5, 1925, high school science teacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution in one of Tennessee’s public schools. Scopes had agreed to act as defendant in a case intended to test Tennessee’s new law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in its public schools. On May 4, the day before Scopes’s arrest, the Chatanooga Times had run an ad in which the American Civil Liberties Union offered to pay the legal fees of a Tennessee teacher who was willing to act as a defendant in a test case. Several Dayton residents hatched a plot at a local drugstore. They hoped that a trial of this type would bring much needed publicity to the tiny town of Dayton.

The men enlisted several local attorneys and one easy-going teacher who believed in academic freedom and in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution which states that all organisms developed from earlier forms through a process of natural selection. While volumes of scientific evidence support the theory of evolution, many felt that it contradicted the story of creation as described in the Bible and thus did not want evolution taught in schools.

The trial pitted famous labor and criminal defense attorney Clarence Darrow against former senator and secretary of state William Jennings Bryan, who worked for the prosecution. The trial was such a media circus that, on the seventh day in the courtroom, the judge felt compelled to move the proceedings outdoors under a tent due to the unbearable heat and for fear that the weight of all the spectators and reporters would cause the floor to cave in.

As Judge John T. Raulston incrementally disallowed the use of the trial as a forum on the merits or validity of Darwin’s theory, the trial swiftly drew to a close. The jury took only nine minutes to return a verdict of guilty. After all, Scopes had admitted all along that he had, in fact, taught evolution. As the trial came to a close, reporter and critic H.L. Mencken explained to readers of the Baltimore Sun and the American Mercury:

All that remains of the great cause of the State of Tennessee against the infidel Scopes is the formal business of bumping off the defendant. There may be some legal jousting on Monday and some gaudy oratory on Tuesday, but the main battle is over, with Genesis completely triumphant. Judge Raulston finished the benign business yesterday morning by leaping with soft judicial hosannas into the arms of the prosecution.

When the defense appealed the verdict, the Tennessee State Supreme Court acquitted Scopes on a technicality but upheld the constitutionality of the state law. Not until 1967 did Tennessee lawmakers overturn the law, finally allowing teachers to teach evolution. The trial did bring Dayton, Tennessee a great deal of publicity, mostly comprised of reinforcements of a stereotype of the south as an intellectual backwater, certainly not the type Daytonians had hoped to attract.

Library of Congress

Probably won’t put this quote in his résumé

“Your argument makes no sense,” U.S. Circuit Judge Harry T. Edwards told the lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission, Jacob Lewis. “When you go back to the office, have a big chuckle. I’m not missing this. This is ridiculous. Counsel!”

At another point in the hearing, Edwards told the FCC’s lawyer his arguments were “gobbledygook” and “nonsense.”

USATODAY.com

M-I-C, K-E-Y

“Mickey Mouse Clubhouse,” a new series for preschool children that begins tonight on the Disney Channel, seeks to restore the primacy of the network’s most famous character. In a sense, Mickey has been demoted: the cartoon creature, who in his heyday chatted with Leopold Stokowski in “Fantasia” and was a hero of World War II (the password for Allied troops on D-Day was “Mickey Mouse”), is now teaching toddlers to count and identify shapes in a Sesame Streetish half-hour program that the network describes as “learning-focused.”

For much of his television career, the mouse was more a master of ceremonies than a comic lead. Now he has been whittled down to a Mister Rogers role — kindly and didactic.

For Today’s Preschooler, a Slick New Mickey Mouse

What a way to treat a senior rodent (Mickey’s 77).

Best line of the day, so far (you pick)

News item — Bush to make major personnel announcement:

“Anyone wanna take a guess? I’m putting my money on a new appointee at extra-constitutional affairs.”

Josh Marshall

“John Snow will be replaced by some other guy just like John Snow.”

Atrios

Update: CIA Director Porter Goss resigned. To spend more time with his hookers one supposes.

Ignorance is as ignorance does

Journalism professor: Can anyone, for extra credit, give me two words to describe this day that will go down in history?

Silence

Professor: I’ll give you a clue — it has to do with President Bush.
Random student: “Mission accomplished!”
Girl #1 to her friend: Mission Impossible? What does Tom Cruise have to do with Bush?
Girl #2: Yeah, I know, that movie isn’t even out yet!

–Silver Center, NYU

Overheard in New York

Please note, this was a journalism class. These students are presumably the journalists of our future.

Stumbling on Happiness

Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert is getting many favorable reviews, including this at Amazon by Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink and The Tipping Point.

Stumbling on Happiness is a book about a very simple but powerful idea. What distinguishes us as human beings from other animals is our ability to predict the future–or rather, our interest in predicting the future. We spend a great deal of our waking life imagining what it would be like to be this way or that way, or to do this or that, or taste or buy or experience some state or feeling or thing. We do that for good reasons: it is what allows us to shape our life. And it is by trying to exert some control over our futures that we attempt to be happy. But by any objective measure, we are really bad at that predictive function. We’re terrible at knowing how we will feel a day or a month or year from now, and even worse at knowing what will and will not bring us that cherished happiness. Gilbert sets out to figure what that’s so: why we are so terrible at something that would seem to be so extraordinarily important?
…

I suppose that I really should go on at this point, and talk in more detail about what Gilbert means by that–and how his argument unfolds. But I feel like that might ruin the experience of reading Stumbling on Happiness. This is a psychological detective story about one of the great mysteries of our lives. If you have even the slightest curiosity about the human condition, you ought to read it. Trust me.

Freakonomics author Steven D. Levitt says:

One of the best books I have read lately is “Stumbling on Happiness” by Dan Gilbert, a psychologist at Harvard.

The book is about how what we think makes us happy and what really does make us happy are often two completely different things. It is based on decades of incredibly creative psychological studies. The conclusions are amazing but compelling. It is very readable, aimed at a general audience.

More trivia

With “SOS” the number one tune in the land, it joins five other number ones with the shortest title ever:

“Why,” Frankie Avalon (Dec. 28, 1959)
“ABC,” Jackson 5 (April 25, 1970)
“War,” Edwin Starr (Aug. 29, 1970)
“Ben,” Michael Jackson (Oct. 14, 1972)
“Bad,” Michael Jackson (Oct. 24, 1987)
“SOS,” Rihanna (May 13, 2006)

Billboard

Three with Michael Jackson. Curious.

You just never know what you’ll learn at NewMexiKen University.

The hits just keep on coming

New number one on the Billboard Hot 100 this week — “SOS” by Rihanna. “[T]he second-biggest leap to No. 1 in history, rocketing 34-1 thanks to a flurry of digital sales.” *

The new top album is “IV” by Godsmack.

Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris, “All The Roadrunning,” is the 17th ranking album in its first week.

* “The record for the biggest jump to No. 1 in Hot 100 history is held by Kelly Clarkson. In October 2002, her first single, ‘A Moment Like This,’ bounded 52-1. The record had been held for 37 years by the Beatles. In April 1964, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ soared 27-1.” (Billboard)

Best line of the day, so far

“Of course, I don’t expect Congress to modernize the national anthem any more than I expect it to get rid of other anachronistic fixtures of American life—the Electoral College, the copper penny, or Donald Rumsfeld. ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ is one of those outdated institutions that survive for reasons of habit, sentiment, and sheer inertia.”

Jacob Weisberg in an interesting essay about the anthem. NewMexiKen agrees with Weisberg, I’d choose “This Land Is Your Land” for our anthem.

Go spend 99¢ and listen to Bruce Springsteen’s live version.

Is it just me, or …

Are they cooking meat a little less in restaurants? It seems like medium-well is now what used to be called medium. That is, plenty of pink. I don’t remember any pink in medium-well before.

Can anyone else drive through an intersection after cars that were stopped for the light and sometimes smell cigarette smoke? (With the window down, of course.)

Ask the pilot

A very interesting column from Patrick Smith discusses “What if my seatmate tries to open the cabin door at 37,000 feet?” This is well-worth the very short ad before access, especially for anyone who flies.

During flight none of these doors can be opened, for the simple reason that cabin pressure won’t allow it. Think of an aircraft door as a drain plug, fixed in place by the interior pressure. With very few exceptions, aircraft doors open inward. Some retract upward into the ceiling; others swing outward or downward against the fuselage; but they all open inward first, and not even the most musclebound human will overcome the hundreds of pounds of pressure holding them shut. At a typical cruising altitude, as many as 8 pounds of pressure are pushing against every square inch of interior fuselage. That’s 1,152 pounds of weight against each square foot of door. Flying at low altitudes, where cabin-pressure levels are lower, even a differential of 2 pounds per square inch is still more than anyone can displace — even after six cups of coffee and the frustration that comes with sitting behind a shrieking infant for five hours.

Congresswoman Wilson on Net Neutrality

NewMexiKen recently wrote to my congressional representative, Heather Wilson, to thank her for her vote in committee in support of an amendment to the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Efficiency Act of 2006. The amendment would have strengthened the measure to keep the net neutral. Congresswoman Wilson was the only Republican to vote for the amendment.

Communications conglomerates AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner and others want to control the flow of digital communications and charge websites a “toll” to expedite delivery to the end-user. Such a toll would, of course, destroy much of the democratic nature of the web.

At the behest of the phone and cable lobby, the Federal Communications Commission recently overturned longstanding safeguards. And, according to some reports, that lobby has spent tens of millions of dollars to dissuade Congress from restoring the non-discrimination principle.

Representative Wilson replied to me today. Some of what she said:

I supported an amendment during the full committee mark up that would have strengthened the network neutrality provisions in the bill. The amendment, offered by Congressman Markey, would have imposed non-discriminatory requirements on broadband network providers with respect to the delivery of content, applications, and services over the internet. …

I believe that the internet should remain open to search and visit websites without any restrictions or additional fees charged by providers. The proposed legislation has language that addresses network neutrality, although I think it needs to be even stronger than it is.

NewMexiKen applauds Representative Wilson’s stand — again, she was the sole Republican in committee to support net neutrality. Let’s hope she, and others, like Representative Markey, continue the fight.

Perhaps you should see how your representative stands and encourage his or her support for net neutrality. They’re all up for reelection this year.

Why so defensive?

Dan Froomkin, consistently one of the very best commentators on the White House — a must read, really — sums up the reaction to Stephen Colbert, including this:

“Here they were, holding a swanky party for themselves, and Colbert was essentially telling them that they’ve completely screwed up their number one job these past six years. Is it any surprise they were defensive?”

And, quoting Time TV critic James Poniewozik: “To the audience that would watch Colbert on Comedy Central, the pained, uncomfortable, perhaps-a-little-scared-to-laugh reaction shots were not signs of failure. They were the money shots. They were the whole point.”

And Joan Walsh at Salon: “For those who think the media shamed itself by rolling over for this administration, especially in the run-up to the Iraq war, Colbert’s skit is the gift that keeps on giving. Thank you, Stephen Colbert!”

Improv Everywhere Mission: Best Buy

Improv Everywhere Mission dresses several dozen people to look like Best Buy employees (you know, khakis and a blue polo shirt) and invades a store.

Around 80 agents showed up, most them looking like wonderful Best Buy employees. More than a few came dressed in navy or teal, but with the belt and the khakis they still looked employee-like. After everyone arrived I explained the mission. The first step was for everyone to throw their newspapers away. The instruction to bring a newspaper was a red herring meant to throw people off the scent of the mission’s true nature. I then revealed the plan, “We’re heading up to the Best Buy on 23rd Street. We’ll enter the store one by one. Once inside, spread out and stand near the end of an aisle, facing away from the merchandise. Don’t shop, but don’t work either. If a customer comes up to you and asks you a question, be polite and help them if you know the answer. If anyone asks you if you work there, say no. If an employee asks you what you’re doing, respond ‘I’m waiting for my girlfriend/boyfriend who is shopping elsewhere in the store.’ If they question you about your clothing, just explain that it’s what you put on when you woke up this morning and you don’t know any of the other people dressed like you.”

Not too surprisingly: “The lower level employees laughed and got a kick out of it while the managers and security guards freaked out.”

Pretty funny with lots of photos.

Best line of the day, so far

“Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist today denied reports that his presidential ambitions have slipped into a persistently vegetative state, saying they are alert and responding to visual stimulus.”

Billmon at Whiskey Bar commenting on Frist’s push to have a $100 rebate for each of us as a solution to the high cost of gasoline. The idea was rejected by just about everyone, a long line of rejection for Senator Dr. Frist since his video diagnosis of Terry Schiavo.

Recognizing a stroke — and saving a life

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within three hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke … totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed and getting to the patient within three hours which is tough.

Doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

1. Ask the individual to SMILE.

2. Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

3. Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE coherently. (For example: It is sunny out today.)

If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call 9-1-1 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

After discovering that a group of non-medical volunteers could identify facial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems, researchers urged the general public to learn the three questions. They presented their conclusions at the American Stroke Association’s annual meeting last February [2003]. Widespread use of this test could result in prompt diagnosis and treatment of the stroke and prevent brain damage.

NewMexiKen did a little checking and these instructions appear valid. Thanks to Jill for sending it along.

Learn to recognize a stroke and act quickly:

Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
Sudden, severe headache with no known cause
Call 9-1-1 immediately if you experience symptoms!
Time lost is brain lost!